CIA nominee John Brennan / SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images

by Jim Michaels and David Jackson, USA TODAY

by Jim Michaels and David Jackson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - President Obama's choice to head the CIA told lawmakers Thursday that the administration's drone strike program is legal, carefully managed and important to national security.

"We only take such actions as a last resort to save lives," John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The security issues that have dominated the country's national security debate over the past decade played out in the hearing room. Brennan was asked about waterboarding, lethal drone strikes and upheaval in the Middle East.

The confirmation hearing was delayed by protesters against drone strikes and other counterterrorism policies. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the intelligence committee, ordered the hearing room cleared before the nominee could complete his opening statement.

The choice of Brennan to head the CIA has brought increased scrutiny to the use of armed drones to kill al-Qaeda leaders around the world, a key part of the administration's counterterrorism strategy.

Brennan, who helped manage the drone program as Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, is closely associated with the lethal strikes.

He defended the rigor and care with which the strikes are approved and carried out. Brennan told the committee that critics, such as the protesters, are unaware of "the care that we take and the agony that we could go through" to try to avoid civilian casualties.

Feinstein said the number of civilian casualties caused by drone strikes are in the single digits yearly.

Lawmakers expressed concerns about oversight of the drone strikes.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Brennan the Obama administration has "stonewalled" the committee and others on information about the drone program, saying, "Every American citizen has the right to know when the government thinks it has a right to kill them."

The killing of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011 raised concerns among civil rights advocates and lawmakers about the precedent of targeting an American citizen.

In an attempt to boost Brennan's nomination and quell congressional critics, Obama directed the Justice Department to provide the Senate and House intelligence committees with Office of Legal Counsel advice related to the administration's drone policy.

The release came hours before the confirmation hearing.

Wyden accused the Justice Department of not following through on the president's pledge to provide all the legal justifications and said he wanted access to the documents before voting on the nomination.

Brennan expressed some skepticism about the idea of establishing a court-like system to approve drone strikes, saying that protecting American lives is "inherently an executive branch function."

Feinstein has speculated about bringing some more oversight and transparency to the system. "We need to look at the whole process and figure a way to make it transparent and identifiable," Feinstein said after the hearing.

Brennan, a CIA official during the George W. Bush administration, found himself answering questions about the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used during those years against terrorist suspects. Brennan said he registered "personal objections" to waterboarding, a practice critics have called torture, but had no authority to stop it.

"Waterboarding is reprehensible and should not be used," Brennan said, though he declined to say whether he personally regards it as torture. "I am not a lawyer and cannot address that question," he said.

The nominee said he did not know whether enhanced interrogation techniques led to the raid that killed 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden. "I do not know what the truth is," Brennan said.

A veteran employee of the CIA, Brennan identified a number of challenges facing the agency: upheaval in the Middle East; continued struggles against al-Qaeda terrorists; cyber-attacks from other countries, criminals and terror groups; and efforts by Iran and North Korea to pursue nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.

Brennan pledged to keep intelligence committee members in the loop on CIA operations, saying there would be no "trust deficit."

Despite concerns from members of both parties, Brennan is likely to be confirmed in the post.

Feinstein praised the nominee, saying, "John Brennan, by all accounts, will be a strong leader" of the CIA.

James Carafano, a foreign policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said there is much to criticize in Obama and Brennan's counterterrorism policies, but he doesn't see "enough heat to stop confirmation" in a Democratic-controlled Senate.

If confirmed, Brennan would replace David Petraeus, who resigned from the CIA in November after revelation of an extra-marital affair.

During the hearing, Brennan said Awlaki had an operational role in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Feinstein asked Brennan a series of questions aimed at drawing out more information about Awlaki and his role in terrorist plots against the United States.

At the end of the three-and-a-half-hour hearing, Feinstein complimented Brennan for what she called his forthright and direct responses to questions, giving him a strong endorsement. "I think you are going to be a fine and strong leader of the CIA," she told him.